Merck buys biotech company Prometheus for $10.8 billion

Pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. acquires biotechnology startup Prometheus Bisciences. According to both companies, Merck will pay $200 for each share of the acquired company. Thus, the entire transaction is valued at $10.8 billion. On Friday, April 14, Prometheus shares closed at $114.01. Thus, the company’s capitalization was $5.4 billion. The deal, which Merck calls one of the largest in the pharmaceutical market in recent years, is planned to close in the third quarter of this year.

The 75.4% premium at which Merck buys a biotech start-up reflects the importance of this purchase. In 2028, his best-selling cancer drug Keytruda is expected to lose patent protection. Last year, Keytruda’s sales were about $21 billion, compared to Merck & Co.’s total sales of $59.3 billion. That prompted Merck to seek deals to buy promising biotech companies. In November last year, as Kommersant reported, the company acquired for $1.4 billion, biotechnology company Imago BioSciences, which develops drugs for the treatment of diseases of the bone marrow, as well as blood cancer. Earlier in 2019, the company bought cancer drug maker ArQule for $2.7 billion, and last year it bought experimental high blood pressure drug developer Acceleron Pharma for $11.5 billion.

Prometheus is developing immune therapies and does not yet have a single approved product in its portfolio. So far, the company’s most successful project is PRA023 for the treatment of diseases such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. The company recently announced positive results from a mid-stage trial of the drug and plans to speed up the process of moving to the final stage of research.

Andrey Kelekeyev